Tornado arrives as uninvited guest at Kansas wedding

A video of a tornado at a Kansas wedding has gone viral. Who invited that tall, dark guest to the wedding, anyway?

May 23, 2012

The bride wore white. The groom wore a cowboy hat. And a tornado crashed the wedding in Harper County, Kansas.

But the happy couple didn't mind that presence of the tall, dark uninvited guest lurking on the horizon. 

Caleb and Candra Pence were married last Saturday, May 19 in an outdoor wedding on their property near Harper, Kansas. The couple and their guests were aware of the weather, the threatening rain and tornado. But they didn't let any of it spoil the sacred event.

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"I wasn't worried. It was moving to the northeast so I wasn't worried," said Carla Pence, the groom's mom.

She told KAKE.com of Wichita, Kansas, that the tornado's presence made it a real Kansas wedding. "It was very classic: boots, jeans, wheat and tornado. You can't get any better than that for Kansas," said Carla Pence.

The wedding photographer, who's photos of the event have gone viral in social media, took advantage of the scenic backdrop.

“The tornadoes were actually coming down throughout the ceremony,” Cate Eighmey told the Wichita Eagle. “Nobody was panicking. It was the most surreal thing.”

The photographer was more worried about the rain than the tornado about eight miles away.  “As soon as they came back down the aisle, my main concern was trying to quickly get some pictures of the couple and the wedding party before the rain started,” Eighmey said.

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The tornado reportedly caused serious damage where it touched down, but there were no injuries.